I dare say she won't be long.

She had to go through the rain on business with someone or other--perhaps you know.

Have you been in London all the summer?
Oh no, I remember you told me you had been somewhere in France; on the Loire, wasn't it ?' Rolfe dropped a careless affirmative.

His temper prompted him to ask whether Miss Frothingham knew the difference between the Loire and the Garonne; but on the whole he was more puzzled than offended.

What had come over this young woman?
Outwardly she was not much altered--a little thinner in the face, perhaps; her eyes seeming a trifle darker and deeper set; but in the point of demeanour she had appreciably suffered.